37g Stocking Ideas

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dionisk

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
33
Location
Ft Lauderdale, FL
Hello, I have a 37g tank that is moderately planted. 30wide, 12deep, 22tall

Sand substrate
96w PC 6700k with a photoperiod of 12hours
1x top fin 200gph 40 hob
1x Aqueon 55/75 400gph hob
200w Heater
Small DIY co2 with around 1bubble every 6s, transitioning to pressurized paintball eventually.
Currently dosing Flourish as well.

Should be all relevant parameters. Need ideas for stocking. Would like a bristle nose Pleco, but besides that open to suggestions. Prefer colorful.

Thanks
 
Do you like schooling fish? Cichlids? community fish? Bottom dwellers? Top dwellers? Livebearers? There are soooooooo many options. :)
Some colorful schoolers include cherry barbs, cardinal tetras, von Rio tetras, and kerri blue tetras.
Honey gouramis, rams, apistos, and paradise fish are all colorful centerpiece fish options.
Angels are awesome.
Kuhli loaches and cory cats make great bottom dwellers. :)
 
No specific preference. I'd hope for one or two schools, some kind of top dweller maybe that wouldn't be hurt by light. Some bottom dwellers that would work well with a pleco. Prefer longer bristle catfish if thats an option.

Any types of cichlids that can coexist in a community tank and at neutral pH?

Odd or long finned fish I like too.
 
There are a bunch of dwarf cichlids that do fine in a community. The most common ones are rams and apistos. There are also golden dwarf cichlids, dwarf flag cichlids, Inca stone fish, and a few others, but they are less commonly seen.
You definitely have room for 2 schools.
For top dwellers, there are a lot of cool killifish, but some of them can be a bit aggressive, so make sure to research any species you like to see if its compatible. I recommend danios of some sort. There are purple passion danios, orange finned danios, glowlight danios (not the same as GloFish) in addition to the zebra/leopard danios you commonly see. :)
Harlequin rasboras also tend to stay higher up in the tank.
In addition to the fish I suggested earlier, there are also black neons, pristella tetras, threadfin rainbows, skirt tetras, and rummy-nose tetras.
Don't worry about the pH. Stability maters a whole lot more than any actual number.
I suggest you look up some of the fish I suggested and see if you like any of them or if you want to go in a different direction. :)
 
Ok, I went through all that you listed, the ones I like are:

Cardinal Tetra (beautiful)
Rams
Apistos
Paradise
Cory Cats (but which?)
Dwarf Flag Cichlid
Killifish
Glowlight Danio
Black Neon Tetra
Pristella Tetra
Threadfin Rainbowfish
Skirt Tetra


And some that I'm not too sure about but aren't bad:

Cherry Barb
Kerri Blue Tetra
Honey Gourami (a little bland, anything more colorful)?
Angels - I like them, but don't they grow big, are territorial/aggressive, and need plenty of room? Is it possible to get multiples of them in a community tank since I feel like just 1 of them would look odd?
Purple Passion Danio
Orange Finned Danio
Harlequin Rasbora
Rummy Nose Tetra
 
I have a 40g with angels, so it is certainly possible in your tank. Having them does limit your stocking options a bit thought because of their space need. 1 is just fine, but if you wanted to try 2, you could. Issues can arise thought if they decide to pair up and breed in a community. I suggest researching them a bunch to see if they are really what you want to build our community around. I love mine and I have a spawning pair in my community, but it does limit my other stock options.
Honeys can be very colorful, it depends on the stock. Dwarf gouramis are often more colorful, but it can be a bit difficult to find good healthy stock sometimes.
You could easily do 2 big schools, one species of dwarf cichlid (or else 2 indiviuduals of 2 different species), corys, and 1 angel.
If you wanted to go with 2 angels, I would only suggest 1 good sized school of fish, a couple dwarf cichlids, and cories (or similar bottom dwellers).
The paradise fish are awesome and colorful. I only recommend 1 in the tank since they can be aggressive with each other, but should be great with all the other fish.
The schoolers like the cardinals look much more impressive in larger school like 8 or more. :)
And of course, all the stock I suggested would be fine with the bristle nose that you want. :)
 
Ok so far I have 4 panda Cory, 10 black neon tetra and 5 neon tetra. Hoping the two tetras can intermix. Going to go get two more pandas tomorrow.
 
They will get along fine together. :) Sounds like an attractive stocking mix. I think the black neons are very pretty.
 
Can't decide what Pleco to get.

Bristle nose
Starlight bristle nose
Clown Pleco
King tiger Pleco

And can't decide on if I should get 3 ottos and what top swimmer
 
I think any of those plecos would work. Remember that the bristlenose plecos need dw. So does the clown pleco. The starlight or king tiger will probably be a little spendy too. But, its toally up to you. :)
 
Also, how much more can I add?

So far:
6 panda Cory (adorable puppy dogs)
2 Bolivian rams (I love these guys, beautiful)
10 black neon tetras
5 neon tetras

I'd like to get some Otos, one aforementioned Pleco, maybe another school, and some top dwellers. Also like shrimp and other inverts but not sure what to get.
 
absolutangel04 said:
I think any of those plecos would work. Remember that the bristlenose plecos need dw. So does the clown pleco. The starlight or king tiger will probably be a little spendy too. But, its toally up to you. :)
Click to expand...

sorry to crash your thread here, but please explain dw..."bristlenose plecos need dw."

thinking of getting me one for my 90 gallon and want to know as much as possible. thanks!:thanks:
 
I can explain it for you. Dw is driftwood, wood that is placed inside your tank that sinks to the bottom. This specific wood is required by some plecos as they suck on it to get some fiber and nutrients as part of their diet, they also like it because it's reminiscent of their environment. Driftwood also releases tannins, which are chemicals you may have heard of in reference to the taste of wine, but these chemicals work like tea basically and enrich your water, color it a tea color, and drop its pH. You can boil some of them away, but you could look that up yourself.

Some plecos also like black water, which I was asking about but wasn't answered. It basically means that they like very cloudy, acidic, super rich in tannins water which is created in nature by dead leaves and muck on the ground. I'm curious if king tigers will be fine without it as I don't really want to go that route.
 
Yep. Dw is short of driftwood. Dionisk explained that all very well. :)

Sorry, I do not know a ton about the king tiger pleco in specific. So, hopefully somebody else know more about them. :)

I think you r tank still has some space, but I would look for something that schools a bit higher up like a school (6) danios of some sort, harlequin rasboras, or Pristella tetras.
If you want both otos and a pleco, I would skip any more schoolers. The tank will be a little bottom heavy, but all those species should get along well so I don't think it will be an issue. Clown plecos are wood eating fish, so I think a clown pleco would be a good mix because it wouldn't compete with otos for food like a bnp would. If you get otos and an algae eating pleco, make sure to supplement lots of veggies so everybody gets enough to eat.
If it was my tank, I would only get either a pleco or the otos. Plecos poop a ton! I would also get a school that stays up near the top so the tank looks full at all levels. I am currently looking at Norman's lamp-eye killifsh. They are good community fish if everybody is small and peaceful like this tank will be. There are some other peaceful killis too, but no other names are popping into my head at the moment. :)
 
I love the way those Norman lamp eye look. Having trouble finding them online though.

Can't seem to find one of my black neons. I think the cichlids may have eaten him? Or he's floating at the bottom of the tank hidden behind some plants. Not sure what to do.

Also two of my pandas have little white head looking spots. One has one on his dorsal fin in the middleish. Another has it on his tail fin and also on his side fin. Look like small dots, solid white, maybe slightly granular. Haven't noticed if they are getting bigger and not sure if they had them in the fish store.
 
Sorry about your fish. I doubt it had anything to do with the ram.
Those white spots sound like ich. Google ich to see if that is indeed what it is. If so, you need to gradually raise the temperature to 86-88 degrees and leave it there. That kills the ich. It will look like it is getting worse for a few days, and then start to improve. You need to keep the temp us for at least a week after the last visible symptom is gone. If it doesn't start to improve, you may have to use salt or a medication, but those things aren't good for cories so hopefully the heat alone will kill it. I have treated ich with just heat, so I know it can be done. :)
The fish probably came to you carrying ich. Its not from anything you did.
Good luck!
 
From what I saw online, Ich looks more like salt granules that are fairly uniform and speckled all over. These are less granule and have uneven borders. Not sure how to describe it. Ill try raising temp slowly to 87.
 
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